163 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



June 



Then follows a nine-page dedica- 

 tory, "To the QUEEN'S Most Ex- 

 cellent Majesty." As the volume at 

 hand is the fourth edition and bears 

 date of 1720, it was probably first 

 printed very shortly after the close of 

 Queen Anne's reign and thus dedica- 

 ted to her; in the body of the work, 

 reference is made to King George as 

 the reigning sovereign. The follow- 

 ing paragraph is characteristic of its 

 laudatory style throughout: 



"Indeed, no Monarch in the World 

 is so absolute as the Queen of the 

 Bees; (which pleads very much with 

 me, that Monarchy is founded in 

 Nature, and approved by the great 

 Ruler of Princes.) But oh, what 

 Harmony, what lovely Order is there 

 in the Government of the Bees. The 

 Queen bee governs with Clemency 

 and Sweetness, so doth Your Majesty; 

 she is Obeyed and Defended, out of 

 Choice and inclination by her Sub- 

 jects, so is Your Majesty. And here 

 I cannot but wish that all Your 

 Majesty's Subjects were as unani- 

 mously loyal as the Subjects of the 

 Queen Bee, in whose nature there is 

 so strongly (as well as strangely) 

 placed a Principle of Obedience, 

 whereas I doubt here Your Majesty is 

 not altogether so happy; for though 

 all the thousands of your Brittannick 

 Israel esteem your Majesty's Person 

 as sacred, and scarce such a villain is 

 among us, who would not lose his life 

 in the defense of Your Majesty; yet 

 I fear 'tis not hard to find some few 

 unquiet Spirits, tho' 'tis not in their 

 power, to trouble the serenity of your 

 Government, or disturb the quiet of 

 Your English Heart." 



The opening chapter treats of the 

 anatomy of the bee, in most details 



true to the description of the modern 

 scientist. An exception is that regard- 

 ing the eyes. The author evidently 

 recognizes only the two composite 

 eyes on either side of the head, and 

 regards the bee's power of sight ex- 

 tremely limited. He w^rites: "Their 

 eyes are very large, covered over with 

 a thick horny membrane, which is 

 the occasion of their being so dim- 

 sighted." The extreme sense of touch 

 in the antennae is, however fully rec- 

 ognized, and by means oE these the 

 insect is supposed to largely supply 

 the wants which its attributed defec- 

 tive vision would render otherwise 

 unattainable. 



The description and anatomy of the 

 drone is strikingly in advance of ideas 

 then current; and he makes an earn- 

 est plea against their wholesale 

 slaughter. The absurdity of the 

 "Opinion that most prevails amongst 

 the Country Bee Mistresses." is evi- 

 dently as apparent to the author as to 

 the modern bee keeper. "They are 

 bees that have lost their sting, and 

 so growing to that prodigious bigness 

 out of all proportion to the other 

 bees) they become Drones." Nor is 

 the explanation offered by Mr. Rous- 

 den, the latest writer on the subject, 

 deemed more tenable. "For, writes 

 Mr. Warde, to prove the popular mis- 

 take, he tells a story much less proba- 

 ble, viz. that he is bred of animable 

 matter gathered by the working bees, 

 and cast into the Drone Comb, into 

 which animable matter, the King Bee 

 did cast his sperm, and so Drones are 

 produced which is ridiculously 

 false; for first, there is no animable 

 matter gathered by bees, nor if there 

 were, is there any King Bee to im- 

 pregnate it by his feminal virtue." 



